


Old Debts to Pay

by Caprice (Argentee)



Category: New Mutants, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Gen, Massachusetts Academy (Generation X), Past Character Death, Redemption, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 03:12:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18908353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Argentee/pseuds/Caprice
Summary: Emma Frost is mentor to the newly formed Generation X when she is confronted by a literal ghost from her past.This is fanfic written for Usenet/Cfan by me back in the mid 1990s that I recently stumbled across cleaning out an old backup drive. I'm archiving it under a Pseudo, along with any other works of the time period that I might stumble across. The only editing has been some spelling corrections and formatting it for Ao3.





	Old Debts to Pay

**Author's Note:**

> **Original Author's Note:**  
>  This story is set somewhere after the founding of Generation X, but I refuse to be more specific than that. If it really matters to you exactly when this story takes place then you are probably taking this far too seriously. ** ** Indicates telepathic communication.

A single card tumbled through the gutter, pushed by gusts of wind. Sunlight had faded its colors and yellowed its edges. Rain had warped it somewhat, but the images were still distinct, the printing still readable, if any had been there to see or read. The back of the card was covered with a pattern of faded blue diamonds. The front of the card bore an image of a tomb in a cemetery, an angel with a horn filling the sky overhead. Small figures of men, woman, and children were rendered in exquisite detail, climbing out of the graves in the image.

The wind finally released its plaything, leaving the card laying face up on the sidewalk. A hint of movement, and a tiny white hand appeared out of one of the graves. It pulled itself upwards, a figure in black emerging from its tiny printed grave. A black cloak with hood obscured the figure’s features as it seemed to look around the frozen scene it inhabited. Then its shoulders straightened, and it stepped forward, stepping out of the card. The figure, human sized now, bent and picked up the card from which it had emerge, reading the single word printed there.

The word was judgment.

It was two nights later, around three o’clock in the morning, the time referred to as the soul’s midnight. The time when people’s biorhythm’s are at their lowest. The time of night when the most people die in their sleep. A figure in a black cloak stepped up to the gates of the school. The figure paused, examining the stone sign at the gate.

Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters

Snow Valley, Massachusetts

It stood there, a shiver seeming to pass beneath the cloak. A pale hand, delicately boned, reached out from beneath the cloak, and pressed a series of numbers on the pad beside the gate. Seconds passed like hours, until the gate swung open silently. The figure passed through the gate, heading towards the students dorm rooms. It would only take one, perhaps two, before her goal was accomplished.

Pale hands shuffled the deck of cards, moving like fretful spiders. Occasionally, a card would be turned over, then shuffled back into the deck barest moments later. Once the figure froze, seeing an image in the cards, then turned and took another hallway. Finally, a door was chosen, and opened. The figure stepped inside, closing and locking the door.

Again the thin hands danced, and a card was drawn. Something moved in the dark room, with a sound like the rustle of sand, or leaves in the wind. Then there was a cry, muffled and faint. For the first time, the figure in black spoke.

"Do not struggle, M'selle. It will not do you any good." The voice was female, with a french accent that should have sounded sweet, save for the iron behind her words.

The lights in the room turned on, and the woman in black stood there, one finger on the lightswitch. Her face was pale, and might have been beautiful once, but now had the look of a starved corpse. Hazel eyes gazed at Jubilee without compassion. "I will not let you scream, M'selle... But feel free to think of your situation."

Jubilee lay in bed, a giant snake coiled about her and the bed, pinning her to it, her hands trapped at her sides. All that remained visible of her through the monstrous coils were a pair of terrified blue eyes.

The woman smiled without warmth, pushing the hood of her cloak back to allow hair the color of dying embers to fall about her face. "Think about it loudly indeed, M'selle." She and the snake watched Jubilee with identical, inhuman expressions.

Emma awoke disoriented, shaking off the threads of a nightmare that wasn't hers. There had been a feeling of terrible pressure, a pair of serpent's eyes staring into hers, dominating her field of vision, wrapped so tightly that breathing hurt... Just then another mental whimper of fear passed through her mind, and she knew it wasn't a dream. Jubilee's terror filled her mind, the girls thoughts were incoherent, chaotic, and refused to respond to Emma's attempts to calm her.

Keeping a tendril of thought in touch with Jubilee, as she simultaneously reached out to touch the thoughts of the others in the school. All were sleeping peacefully, though that would not last long.

**There is an intruder in the school! Everyone into uniform, and to the biosphere SILENTLY! This is not a drill! Any noise may endanger the lives of yourselves and your team-mates.**

She could feel the thoughts of her students pull themselves into varying degrees of order. Satisfied that her instructions were being obeyed, she opened a tight mental link to Sean as she dressed quickly.

**T' the biosphere? What are ye thinkin' woman?!?**

**The intruder already has Jubilation. I want the other children out of harm's way. The intruder has Jubilee bound in her room. With the other students out of the way, I can attempt to take out this intruder's mind.** She slipped out of her room, wearing an all white jumpsuit that fit her like a second skin. Jubilee wasn't harmed, but her terror continued to build as the serpent slithered around her, tasting her with its tounge, almost seeming to toy with her. Emma tried to touch the mind of the monster, and failed utterly. It was as if there was no mind there. She took the stairs to the girl's hall two at a time.

**If thas the case...** Emma stopped suddenly to avoid running into Sean who stood in the doorway to the girl's hall. He continued in a whisper, "What are ye doin' sneakin' through the halls like a thief?"

**I'm going to help Jubilee.** Briefly she shared the image of the snake coiled around Jubilee, and the fact that the creature had no mind. **That means I have to take out whoever is controlling it, before they can have it crush her.**

**Yuir not doing this alone, woman...**

Emma didn't waste anymore time arguing. The last of the other students had arrived in the biosphere. It wouldn't take long for them to notice that neither of their teachers were there... or their friend Jubilee. She had to act now. She moved down the hall to Jubilee's room. The door was closed, but not completely. Sean stood to the right of the door, looking at her. It was a setup. It had to be a setup. It reeked of a setup.

But one of her students was in there.

Emma kicked open the door, and half lept through it. A glance took in the bed with the serpent wrapped around it and Jubilee, and the figure in black. The door was still swinging open when she launched a psi-probe at the figure.

The probe hit a shield. A shield that she, Emma, had made.

The door hit the wall.

Finally she truely saw the figure. Long red hair, the dark color of dying embers. Hazel eyes that were neither green nor grey, but some uncertain color between the two. Familiar features, now wasted, almost skeletal.

"Bonjour, M'selle Frost... it has been a while."

The door, bouncing back, hit Emma in the arm. She never noticed. She stripped away the shielding, almost gently, feeling the mind beneath, a mind at once familiar and strange. "Marie...?" Emma's pale coloring had gone even paler. She paid no attention to Sean slipping past her, or Jubilee still trapped helpless on the bed.

"Oui, M'selle Frost... Are you not curious as to where I've been?"

Almost against her will, Emma found herself drawn into Marie's mind, seeking the answer to that question. Down... Down into that darkness...

Sean saw Emma collapse, and cut loose a sonic shriek at Marie. In the close quarters it picked her up and threw her against the wall like a rag-doll. She hit the wall with the awful crunch of breaking bones, and instantly the serpent vanished from around Jubilee. "Miss FROST!!" The teenager leaped from her bed, and knelt down beside her fallen teacher. Jubilee looked up at Sean, her voice a half panicked shriek, "She isn't breathing!!"

Tarot began to laugh.

"One-one thousand, Two-one thousand, three-one thousand..." Jubilee counted out her thrusts, pausing only to breathe a puff of air into Emma's lungs. Her whole world had narrowed to her teacher's still form, and the even rythym of CPR.

Sean kept one eye on Marie, as he spoke into the intercom. "Bring a stretcher up t' Jubilee's room now! And someone start up the life support equipment in the infirmary." He paused, looking at Marie where she lay on the floor. "Make that two stretchers, and one set of restraints."

"I'm no threat to any of you, M'sseur... it was M'selle Frost I came for." Marie-ange's voice was slightly husky with pain.

"I'll be the judge of that, lassie.. And ye have what ye've done to Miss Frost t' answer for."

That seemed to strike the red-haired girl as funny, and she began to laugh softly, "Non... Non.. it is M'selle Frost that is answering now... for what she has done to me."

She was still laughing softly when Angelo, Everett, and Paige arrived with the stretchers. They paled as they saw Jubilee frantically working over Emma's body, tears staining the teenager's cheeks. Paige wallowed hard, almost managing to keep her image of being in control. "Monet is down in the medlab sir, it will be ready when Miss Frost arrives..." Everett had already put one stretcher down next to Emma, and was helping Jubilee move Emma onto it.

"We have to hurry..." Jubilee's voice was a tear-choked whisper, but it cut through any other speech in the room. Everett and Paige picked up the stretcher, carrying Emma off at a walk that was nearly a run. Jubilee followed behind them, leaving Sean and Angelo alone in the room with Marie.

Angelo slowly advanced towards Marie, his skin spreading out. Sean stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Help me move her down t' the infirmary, laddie?"

"Why should I? Why should we help _her_?"

"Because she's the only one who knows what she did t' Miss Frost. We cannae give up hope yet."

Marie smiled bitterly, "No need to talk about me as if I were not here, M'sseur.... I have no reason to resist you." She started to stand, but got no further than her knees before she doubled over, coughing up blood. Sean moved the other stretcher, next to her, watching her warily.

Marie laid down on it and closed her eyes, not resisting as they strapped her to it. She winced a bit, perhaps, as Angelo tightened her straps tighter than was strictly necessary. Then the stretcher was lifted by Angelo and Sean, and carried down the hall.

Sean kept the front end of the stretcher steady, but Angelo would 'accidently' knock his end of the stretcher against corners and walls. Sean started to reprimand him, but hesitated. What could he possibly say that wouldn't make Angelo's behavior worse? That if he kept this up they'd drop Marie? That was what the boy was hoping for.

"Miss Frost'd nae want to see you acting like this."

Angelo looked like he'd been slapped... He didn't answer, but at least he held the stretcher steady now. Thankfully it was not much further to the medlab, as Sean was not certain how long Angelo would keep control.

When they arrived, Miss Frost had already been placed on full life support. Machines kept her heart beating, her lungs breathing... but her EEG was a nearly flat line, with no brain activity to speak of.

Sean set his end of the stretcher down gently on one of the beds. Angelo simply let his half fall, jarring Marie roughly. She didn't seem to react to the pain, and the look in her eyes was unnerving. It was as if she was in some sick way protected from the pain by the memory of something far, far worse.

Sean frowned at Angelo, "That was nae necessary..."

"Not _necessary_?!? La puta there KILLED Miss Frost!"

Marie shook her head weakly, her voice a harsh whisper. "I did not kill her. She wished to know where I had been. I showed her, and she walked into death through me."

Angelo took a half step towards her, "Chica, if you think you can stop us with this doubletalk..." He was cut off when Monet interrupted him.

"You had been dead, and you came back somehow?" She stared at Marie, studying her the way she'd stare at some problem she was certain she could unravel in time.

Marie smiled faintly, but it was a bitter expression that meant exactly the opposite of what a smile should mean. "Oui, but I found the road back."

Monet got a tiny, serious frown on her face. "Couldn't Emma find this road back?"

Marie chuckled dryly, "Oui... but she does not believe in it. She never believed in my powers. And if she does find the road, she is not prepared for what she must face on it."

"And what is that?"

Marie smiled sadly. "Herself...."

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Emma looked around her, shivering. Somehow she was in her old costume, the one she wore as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club. But she had never felt cold in it before, never felt vulnerable. It had been her armor.

She stood on a vast, flat grey plain. A cold wind blew from random directions, cutting through her scanty clothing. She pulled her cloak tightly around herself. This wasn't the astral plane, she knew that place well. This was someplace new, and unwelcoming.

"MotherMotherFrost!" A purple blur pounced at her, knocking her to the ground. Emma found herself laying on her back, Catseye curled up on her stomach in furform, purring ecstatically. "MotherMotherFrost come! Romp-play with Catseye, yes?"

Emma gasped, then struggled to sit up, hugging Catseye. "Sharon! I heard you were...." She paused, not finishing the sentence. She knew Sharon was dead. But Marie had been dead too. Could it be...?

Catseye bounded off of Emma. "MotherMotherFrost come! Come BestPlace with Catseye!" She took Emma's cloak in her teeth, and began tugging gently.

"Bestplace? What...." Emma stopped. There was something disconcerting about a place that wouldn't let you finish a thought. Before her, half the plain was gone. Instead, there was a field with grass the color of emeralds, dotted with wildflowers. In the distance was a forest, and somehow Emma could see each tree, almost each leaf. It was beautiful, heartbreakingly so.

"Bestplace, MotherMotherFrost! Rompplay forever! No heart's-hurt!"

Emma never noticed the few tears trickling down her cheek. "Oh Sharon...." She smiled down at her former student. "I... I wish I could... but I can't stay here, not yet. There are other students who count on me."

Catseye pouted, an adorable, kittenish expression. "Not go back to badplace. Stay, yes?"

Emma looked again at the glorious vision before her. "I have to go back." Her heart ached in her chest. "But I will come back someday. I promise."

Catseye walked circles about Emma's legs, rubbing against her and purring. She then turned away, and bounded into the field, never looking back. Emma hesitated, watching Catseye chase a sapphire butterfly, as happy as a kitten. Then she turned, and walked away.

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Monet looked up from taping Marie-Ange's ribs at the sound of a single beep. On the EEG was a lone spike of activity. "Does this mean she is coming back?"

"Non, but it means she is trying."

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Emma walked across the grey plane, thick dust swirling about her feet. Somewhere behind her was comfort and shelter, but some instinct told her not to look back. Occasionally through the dust she'd catch glimpses of something at her feet, but it never lasted long enough for her to tell what it was.

"Hello, teach. It's been a while."

Emma turned at the voice, and paused, shuddering in horror. Jenny Stravos stood there, but not as she had been in life. Her Hellion's uniform was stained with blood. Her body seemed half crushed, twisted. It was the image that had haunted her dreams. Her mind calling up visions of what must have happened to her students.

"We died because of you, teach. It was your fault." Roulette advanced, a baseball bat appearing in her right hand. She tapped it restlessly against the palm of her left hand.

"No... Jenny, I never intended any of you to get hurt." But Emma's voice held no confidence. It was her fault. They were her students. She hadn't been there, and they had died.

The bat came down on Emma's arm in a shattering burst of pain. She screamed in shock, as Jenny brought the bat down on her again and again. "Your fault, you killed us, it was all your fault." Jenny's voice droned on in a litany of accusation. Emma wept, falling under the blows that were no more than she felt she deserved.

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

*beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*

"She's flatlining! Get the paddles!"

"She can't be flatlining! The machines are making her heart beat for her!"

"Then what is that!"

Tarot's whisper was lost in the frantic confusion. "A test she is failing... Oh, M'selle Frost... believe in yourself."

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

"The rest of eternity... you'll pay... and pay... you killed us...." Jenny's voice had become a drone that Emma could scarcely hear through her pain.

"No," Emma whimpered through a split and bleeding mouth. Jenny paused in her attacks, her eyes malevolent sparks. "No... don't deserve forever... I have to pay, but not..." Emma tried to think through the fog of pain. Not forever.... she deserved pain, but not that. And her pain wouldn't change anything. Wouldn't undo what had happened.

Jenny hissed. "Forever! You deserve it!" She raised the bat again, as if to strike.

"I... do... NOT!" Emma sent a bolt of psi-force lancing at Jenny.

It encountered... nothing. And the image of Roulette vanished like a popped soap bubble. Emma stood shakily, and began limping away across the plain.

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

*beepBEEP beepBEEP beepBEEP*

"Her heart started again! How?"

"It is nae for you to worry about... Ye all should be in bed. I'll stay here with Emma."

"If you THINK you are going to send us away NOW...."

**Besides,** Jonathon commented, **It's morning already. And I doubt any of us could sleep.**

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Emma stood at the end of a smooth, black road. Before her was a doorway, leading into blackness. A figure lurked in the shadow of that doorway, hidden from clear view. Whoever it was, she'd have to confront them before she could try the doorway, hoping it would return her to her students. "Whoever you are, come out, and face the White Queen!"

"Of course, and so shall you," she said, as Emma Frost stepped out of the shadows.

Emma stood, staring at herself. "Let me pass... I have to get back to my students."

"Not until you face me. Until you face yourself. Those are the rules here."

"Very well then." Emma sent a lash of psychic force at her doppleganger, only to collapse from the pain of the onslaught. She clasped her hands to the side of her head, glaring at her double. Her double's face held the slightly superior smirk that she herself had used on so many.

"You still don't understand... You've learned nothing here!"

Emma stood slowly, her mind working furiously. Face herself. Wasn't that what she was doing? Then she would have to try another method. She reached out mentally, touching the mind of her double....

And saw every wrong she had done. Every pain she had inflicted.

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

"What's going on? Her vital signs are going crazy!"

"She dies, and la bruja over there is going to PAY..."

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Every lie she had ever told herself. And the bitter truths behind the lies.

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

"Her brain activity is coming and going! What's happening to her!"

"Jubilation, your hysteria is not contributing anything to helping Miss Frost."

"Monet, I fear there is nae anything any of us can do."

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Everything bright in herself... everything dark. All that she was laid open before her mind's eye. Weeping, Emma stumbled through the doorway.

⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Emma Frost opened her eyes, to see her students gathered around her. Pandemonium erupted as the students strove to make themselves heard over each other. Sean however was quiet, shaken by the terrible sorrow and pain that showed briefly in Emma's eyes before she regained control. "Children, I assure you, I am alright. Now where is Tarot?"

Jubilee answered, "She's right over..." and stopped mid-turn.

The bed where Tarot had been laying was empty, save for a single card. Jubilee walked over, holding the card up so that Emma and the others could see it. Across the bottom was written the word Temperance. On the card stood an angel, one foot in the water, one on land, pouring liquid from one chalice to another.

An angel with long red hair.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Original Author's Note:**  
>  Some notes on symbolism of Tarot's name, and of the tarot cards for those who are interested... If not, then skip this.
> 
> The symbolism of tarot cards varies depending on reference and source. The following interpretations are the ones I am familiar with, and are fairly general.
> 
> Judgement card - This card means literally what it says, judgement for actions past, and getting your just rewards. It can also symbolize awakening to the truth.
> 
> Temperance card - This card usually shows a blonde angel. It can symbolize balance, the reconcilation of dissimilar elements, or testing oneself.
> 
> And the symbolism of Tarot's name?
> 
> Marie-Ange literally translates as "Bitter Angel".


End file.
